Sharpening a 10" Saw blade.

Take it to a local blade sharpening shop, it isn’t that expensive to have a blade sharpened, plus they will do a much better job than you could possibly do with a hand held Dremel.

I use Forrest Manufacturing to sharpen all of my blades. For a blade like this it will run you $27.50 plus shipping.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

A guy in my neighbor hood uses one of these Harbor Freight sharpeners for sharpening his blades. I wouldn’t use it on mine but he seems to get reasonable results with it.

Good suggestion Prop, I’d forgotten I have a Lansky for my knives. Maybe I can use the Lansky for the saw blade?

I think your issue is probably two-fold…. clearance (kerf not wide enough for the blade) and dull teeth.

You should make sure you understand all that’s involved if you decide to sharpen this yourself. You could wind up ruining your blade or costing yourself some unnecessary expenses at a sharpening shop in an attempt salvage the blade following your errors. You need to know the top and face bevels (if any), the hook angle, you’ll need to clean the gullets and smooth out the back to ensure the sawdust exits easily. You’ll also need to set the teeth, if applicable, and joint the teeth to ensure they’re each performing equal work. This is all necessary for a smooth/clean cut.

I have my own business, Champion Woods & Sharpening (in Shelocta, Pennsylvania). If you’re interested I’d be glad to sharpen it for you, if not, I’d still recommend you have a competent sharpening shop do this for you. If it’s carbide I’m limited to what work I can do, but if it’s carbide it sounds like you’ll need the tips replaced – which I don’t currently offer. You’ll be much happier with the end result if you have a sharpening shop perform the work and you’ll save the money of having to buy a new blade.

Best wishes,

Matt Linder
Champion Woods & Sharpening

Matt – it’s good to hear from someone who does sharpening. The guy I’ve been using to do my sharpening (he came highly recommended) grinds the sides of the carbide teeth as well as the faces and tops. After two or three sharpenings, the carbide has been ground flush with the plate. Is this how it’s supposed to be?? I thought the teeth being wider than the plate was supposed to create the same effect as “set” on older saw blades. It seems like there is enough carbide to grind the face of the teeth several more times, but with no extra material on the sides, the plate is rubbing on the wood and the blades are pretty useless. I’d be very grateful for info or suggestions!

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

As with alot of these posts that get started, the original poster never really gives all the information needed to make a informed decision as to what he or she should do. If it’s a cheap blade that he uses on old wood with nails in it, fine, do what you want, if it’s an expensive blade that is used to make accurate cuts with, well thats another story.

Peter O, I know your question was not directed at me, but I too run a sharpening shop and grind carbide. The sides should be “cleaned off”, just barely kissed. It sounds like he is over grinding to me.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Yes Peter O, you’re absolutely right. The width of the carbide tips provide the requisite set for the blade. You really just want to “touch-up” carbide tips, unless there’s sigificant wear or damage. Usually just a quick face grinding, with the appropriate wheel/dish for carbide tips, is all that’s necessary. The sides should only be sharpened lightly, if necessary. Carbide blades should last a long time, and with a light touch-up you should get quite a bit of life from them – and when the tips are bad just get them replaced. In fairness to your sharpener though, I haven’t seen the condition of your worn carbide tips, so I don’t want to disrespect their quaility of work. You should ask him/her about it and maybe they can explain why they’re having to grind more than you think is necesary, and you’ll get some valuable education out of the discussion. They may have recommendations that will add life to your blade and cost you less in the long run.

Happy cutting,

Matt Linder
Champion Woods & Sharpening

Daren – your input is always welcome! I had forgotten that you do sharpening as well.

Matt – I completely understand that if a tooth is chipped or dinged, extra sharpening might be required, but two things make me think that is not the problem … 1 – As a full-time woodworker, I don’t have time to deal with burns, saw marks, chips, tear-out, etc. As soon as a blade stops perfroming as it should, I stop using it and have it sharpened. If I was really pushing them, I’d expect that they’d be more likely to develop damage. 2 – This is happening with all the blades I’m having sharpened (six or eight), and I have a hard time believing that I’m causing that much damage to the sides of all of my blades. Unfortunately this guy is the kind of person you work with because he is highly recommended, not because he is the kind of person you would/could talk to. You know – the kind that insists that you pay cash and then gets cranky when he has to make change.

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

Peter O – It sounds like you’re doing all the right things, I guess I’d have to agree with Daren then… he’s probably grinding too much. You may want to have your blades sharpened somewhere else, or at least one of the blades so you can compare the service and quality.

Matt Linder
Champion Woods & Sharpening

WOW! We got the blade Jocks on this forum.
This is (or was) an expensive blade. I’d go get the numers but it freezing cold down in my Barn. I have to feed n’ water but dont spend any longer in that chiller than I must.

As a kid in Southern MO, we had a John Deere tractor with a belt shiv on the side of the engine/gearbox.
That belt ran a Saw for firewood. As I remember the blad was pretty big around.
At 10 Yrs old, I had to use a saw set to set the teeth off to the sides so they were all even, then file the two sides so the saw would cut.

Years later in Alaska I took a contract to tear down some WWII Baracks buildings etc. The guy with me said to buy Carbide blades because we’d be cutting wood with nails, and also some Oak.
Huh? Carbide?
I learned about Carbide that day. We finished those buildings after going through a dozen or so Carbide blades.
We never had them sharpend. After you’ve sawn through several of those large nails and then cooked the Carbide to death going through Oak with a dull blade, there just aint no point is spending the money on it. We had a Sharpener locally who seemed to be busy all the time.

This post started out from cruiousity more than need. I wanted to know if anything new had developed along those lines.
Woodchuck naile me with his candor. Yup, I started it without giving you all the detials. I’ll make an effort to go down there and see if I can get some numbers and maybe a photo.
I’m assuming we go through Photo-bucket to post photos eh?

Yep, I red one of your blogs entitled Experience in used wood gathering.